Page 3

CHAPTER ONE

HAILEY JONES

PRESENT DAY

Breathe, Hailey. Breathe, I tell myself in the mirror. My reflection looks frazzled, and is it any wonder? The first major gig for my catering company is today.

It’s a couple's vow renewal. Easy peasy. Except my nerves are shot, and it's only 5 AM in the morning.

“You've got this. Davie loved your dishes. You've hired the right staff. Nothing is going to ruin your big day.” I stare myself down, willing the statement to be true.

This isn't my first catering job, but it's the first one under my new endeavor—Hailey Jones Catering. I'm used to working for other chefs and doing the grunt work. Never the organizing or taking full responsibility if things go wrong.

That's not the case now.

“Nothing's going to go wrong… As long as you stop talking to yourself like a maniac,” I mutter under my breath, turning away from the mirror.

It's not only the fact that this is my first big catering event as a business owner, but the knowledge that it's at Rocking M Ranch. A place I've never been to but is co-owned by brothers Connor and Cormac Madsen.

The elder brother, Cormac, is the groom in today's vow renewal, which means Connor will be present.

Which also means I might be fucked.

Not literally, though, unfortunately.

Because seventeen years ago, I was a shy bookworm and Connor was the star quarterback who asked me out on a date. A date I accepted until my parents squashed my hope of a high school sweetheart to smithereens.

They forbade me from seeing Connor. Said I needed to focus on my education and not get caught up in boys who could potentially get me pregnant and stuck in our small town.

The entire reasoning behind the immediate shutdown was a surprise. My parents weren’t high school sweethearts whose lives were wrecked by getting pregnant with me. I wasn’t some teenage rebel either.

Like Connor had said during that one infamous afternoon in home economics, I was a good girl.

But I guess since I'd never been asked out before, my parents never felt the need to clarify that no, you can't date Hailey, and since I never wanted to disappoint them, I listened.

Retracted my acceptance of Connor's dinner date during our next class, then proceeded to give him the cold shoulder.

Or as much as I could, given how I’m a people pleaser at heart and how charming Connor is.

I think he thought I was playing hard to get at first. Or just nervous because I was the quiet virgin hiding from his spotlight.

His confusion grew as the semester continued.

He even tried asking me out again before we walked for graduation. Approaching me in cap and gown, earnestness on his handsome features.

I turned him down, then cried myself to sleep that night.

“But that's in the past,” I murmur aloud.

It's nearly twenty years later.

Connor could be married for all I know.

He definitely doesn't think about that random girl from high school anymore.

Which means he shouldn't be in my thoughts today.

All I should be thinking about is Davie and Cormac's reception after the vow renewal.